Land battles in 0.6.52 beta

[Malkor]

For some reason land battles in the US campaign on easy difficulty are much harder now than compared to the stable branch i played before. I would even go so far as to say they are too hard. I just did the Burning of Norfolk mission and those british infantry units with 270 and 310 men just destroyed the 4 militia units within a hot minute. I brought 4 units of Fusiliers and with all the other units i was given i just barely managed to hold my ground. I had lost 940 men total compared to over 1100 kills. The Battle of Bunker Hill was also much harder, to the point where i stopped trying to win it and just went with The Escape mission instead. The ship artillery during Bunker Hill made it impossible to sneak some units behind the british lines and take out their land artillery. My infantry would get hit, lose their morale, rout and rout and rout and...it was pure insanity. Things on Breeds Hill itself were even more insane. British infantry with 310 men would just charge into my units, rout them and take the hill. 

It looks like the AI, even on easy difficulty, goes the old UGCW route: When you have more men in your units just charge the enemy. And there were so many units. I managed to surrender the 3 infantry units attacking the fence in the beginning of the battle but still...there were so many of those units. I tried everything i learned playing UGCW and nothing worked. Maybe it was just bad execution and badly played on my part but i don't think that alone explains it. I have the feeling i am playing the land battles on hard difficulty even though i picked easy. I even did a quick check to see the difference and played the Battle of Bunker Hill on hard difficulty for a while. Those large infantry units with 310 men were there but they also had at least 1 star. On easy it was around 270 and 310 per unit but no stars. Land battles need to be toned down a little bit on easy difficulty or not playing them will probably become the best option. The Storming of Chelsea River was the only one out of the 3 land battles i played so far which was okay. I haven't tested the land battles for the british campaign yet but i will try those too.

P.S. Correction it is 0.6.52 beta.

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Malkor
made a mistake with the beta version i am playing

[sterner]

Confirmed, there is a bug. It will be fixed in upcoming patch today.

[pandakraut]

Just played through Bunker Hill on normal and it seemed only slightly harder than before? I wasn't able to completely overwhelm the AI on the left so it took a little longer to silence all of their cannon. Still very possible to kill every enemy unit and then sit around for as long as you like sinking ships. The trade off between the sea and land battles currently seems to be, do you want to get enough crew weapons to last multiple chapters(land battle) or do you want to capture 5+ ships with a chance at getting a medium transport or a 3rd rate for almost free(3rd rate and merchants will never raise anchor).

With burning of norfolk the militia did ok holding the second line of fortifications near the VP. They will eventually get routed, but you can give up the VP for as long as you want it seems. I don't think you're bringing enough units to that battle. I brought 7 units of fusiliers from an old save where they were all 0* and the battle was not difficult. Most of the initial AI units chased the militia to the right side of the map, so I just walked into the fortifications and waited until the remaining AI units were small enough to drive across the map and wipe out.

Definitely noticed some new issues with units seeming to get locked into retreat directions when routing and not updating as they encounter new enemy units. Hopefully that gets straightened out.

[Navalus Magnus]

Played Bunker Hill yesterday on medium difficulty.

I had no chance!

It was much harder than any landbattle of the british campaign.

After watching gameplay videos of the Bunker Hill battle on YouTube i got the impression, that lots of units were missing on my side in yesterdays atempt to win Bunker Hill.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Navalus Magnus

[sterner]

Balance issue is fixed.

You can choose the naval alternative of Bunker Hill.

[pandakraut]

AI infantry appear to have lost ~1/3 of their men on normal difficulty compared to the last patch. Should be much easier now.

[Malkor]

Thanks for the fast fix.

@pandakraut I only managed to take out the 3 units that attack the fence position at the start of the battle. After that i wanted to go for their cannons but i never got the chance to do that because of the constant shelling from the ship artillery. By the time my units reached the cannons, all the enemy had to do was look at my units and they routed. And the ship artillery kept them routing for almost forever. And i agree that i didn't bring enough infantry to the Burning of Norfolk mission but i had to spent so much reputation on adding ships to my fleet to do all the side missions that i simply didn't have enough reputation left over to add Old Truelove to my fleet. Otherwise i would have brought 7 units to that battle. As for the militia being able to hold the fortifications near the VP for a while they weren't. Like i said in my post before the british infantry came in screaming and charging and those militia units were wiped out. I was of course able to take the VP back and hold but it was a very costly fight.

[pandakraut]

My main advice regarding the fire from the naval ships at Bunker Hill is that as long as you stay in certain areas you are relatively safe from them. On the left flank as long as you aren't to the left of the small hills you are basically fine. On the right don't cross the crest of the hill to the right of the road. In the north you are basically fine until you get down the slope of the hill in the NE.

The two enemy artillery units on the left are easy to capture. The 2 further north can be captured but it's harder to recover them to your lines in time. Easier to just focus them down with your artillery instead. Also, make sure you are using hold position for the cover bonus whenever possible.

Series of screenshots showing my setup and battle progression.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2044250563

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2044251649

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2044252281

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2044252740

Edited April 2, 2020 by pandakraut

[Navalus Magnus]

Did the Bunker Hill mission again about an hour or two ago.

Succeded with a bolder strategy than yesterday but noticed, that i might still have been crushed all the same, If a powerfull enemy unit had find a way up the hill.

They seemed to be trapped below the steep slope on the right side of the hill ...

Edited April 2, 2020 by Navalus Magnus

[Malkor]

I did exactly that pandakraut but like i said in the first post, nothing was helping. But as i also described, i was dealing with enemy infantry that had 270 or 310 men in them and right off the bat charged at me like the AI did on legendary difficulty in UGCW. But i would suggest to make another thread about battle strategies for the Battle of Bunker Hill. Or basically any battle. That will make it easier for new players to find relevant information without having to read every topic in order to discover relevant information. I just checked the Battle of Bunker Hill on easy difficulty in the 0.6.54 beta and it is now normal again. There is a very lonely british artillery unit sitting right next to the US infantry on Breeds Hill but other than that it is now fine.

[pandakraut]

1 hour ago, Malkor said:

I did exactly that pandakraut but like i said in the first post, nothing was helping. But as i also described, i was dealing with enemy infantry that had 270 or 310 men in them and right off the bat charged at me like the AI did on legendary difficulty in UGCW. But i would suggest to make another thread about battle strategies for the Battle of Bunker Hill. Or basically any battle. That will make it easier for new players to find relevant information without having to read every topic in order to discover relevant information. I just checked the Battle of Bunker Hill on easy difficulty in the 0.6.54 beta and it is now normal again. There is a very lonely british artillery unit sitting right next to the US infantry on Breeds Hill but other than that it is now fine.

I used the exact same setup on the prior patch where all the AI infantry was 270-310. Took a few more casualties but otherwise the same outcome. If you put an extra unit or two in reserve behind your fortifications they will see off the charges. I will also usually move units out to flank anything that gets close to the fortifications so they will be very diminished during the charge.

I should also note that I barely charge at all anymore unless it's to finish off a routing unit. Better to move multiple units into position to hit an AI unit from multiple sides and have the unit that gets targeted by any return fire hold position. Charging can be effective but it wears out your units too quickly so I don't think volley and charge is a good choice anymore.

Edited April 2, 2020 by pandakraut

[Navalus Magnus]

2 hours ago, Malkor said:

There is a very lonely british artillery unit sitting right next to the US infantry on Breeds Hill

Same here on medium difficulty!  

Edited April 2, 2020 by Navalus Magnus

[wozmir]

17 hours ago, pandakraut said:

Just played through Bunker Hill on normal and it seemed only slightly harder than before? I wasn't able to completely overwhelm the AI on the left so it took a little longer to silence all of their cannon. Still very possible to kill every enemy unit and then sit around for as long as you like sinking ships. The trade off between the sea and land battles currently seems to be, do you want to get enough crew weapons to last multiple chapters(land battle) or do you want to capture 5+ ships with a chance at getting a medium transport or a 3rd rate for almost free(3rd rate and merchants will never raise anchor).

Seems like you've got the UG series mastered, I presume? I sinked thousands of hours into total war, playing UA:AoS on medium, I hardly won bunker hill battles and actually completely lost it in latest beta patch iterations (pre-yesterday's fix). Actually shooting at the ships with cannons? o_O Never occurred to me I could even survive that long!  

[pandakraut]

3 hours ago, wozmir said:

Seems like you've got the UG series mastered, I presume? I sinked thousands of hours into total war, playing UA:AoS on medium, I hardly won bunker hill battles and actually completely lost it in latest beta patch iterations (pre-yesterday's fix). Actually shooting at the ships with cannons? o_O Never occurred to me I could even survive that long!  

I do have a lot of experience with UGCW. It sounds like the battle is in a decent place post patch. The majority of players in this game do not seem to be particularly interested in the land combat so cranking up the difficulty there doesn't make sense.

Edited April 2, 2020 by pandakraut

[rtello45]

Are you playing on Steam or Game=Lab?  I purchased it from Lab and haven't been getting updates for awhile. Bunker Hill as American is impossible to win.

[pandakraut]

16 hours ago, rtello45 said:

Are you playing on Steam or Game=Lab?  I purchased it from Lab and haven't been getting updates for awhile. Bunker Hill as American is impossible to win.

Latest version is 0.7.1 through the steam beta. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069650/discussions/3/1744521326156241406/

Have you tried some of the suggestions from earlier in the thread on how to get through the battle?

[rtello45]

Thanks for the quick reply ( by the way I have used many of your mods in General Civil War, love it). Yes I did but still just get overwhelmed by charging troops. I purchased the Alpha through  Xsolla but was wondering if it is possible to get it transferred to Steam, My version is 1.6.38 and my last update according to the News was in December.

[pandakraut]

If you purchased the alpha through Xsolla, you should have received an email from them including a steam key when the game became available in open access there. If you cannot find the email then message @Ink and he can get you sorted out.

[rtello45]

Got it straightened out today with your help and Ink.  Many thanks.